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4 days ago | 
smsmagazine.com.au | Penny Pryor |Jason Spits
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has issued updated guidance for Australian financial services (AFS) licensees following an increase in reports of stolen shares due to identity theft. The new guidance, Information Sheet 237 Protecting against share sale fraud (INFO 237), outlines better practices for licensee prevention and detection of share sale fraud.
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5 days ago | 
smsmagazine.com.au | Penny Pryor |Jason Spits
The proposed Division 296 tax will disproportionately hit the SMSF sector at a time when auditors are assessing the investment choices made by trustees and they should be looking at technology that will save them time, according to a portfolio tracking service.
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1 week ago | 
smsmagazine.com.au | Penny Pryor |Jason Spits
The program of this year’s SMSF Association Technical Summit, to be held in Sydney on 6 to 7 August, is designed to give practitioners practical insights into the many ethical dilemmas, compliance pitfalls and behavioural challenges currently facing the sector. “In today’s environment, where one misstep can lead to litigation or loss of professional standing, SMSF professionals are facing unprecedented scrutiny from clients, regulators and peers,” association chief executive Peter Burgess said.
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1 week ago | 
smsmagazine.com.au | Penny Pryor |Jason Spits
The legacy of highly regarded financial services publisher and journalist Greg Bright has been recognised with a new scholarship established in his name by the representative body for superannuation fund executives, which he co-founded.
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1 week ago | 
smsmagazine.com.au | Penny Pryor |Jason Spits
The SMSF Association strongly supports the Australian Financial Complaints Authority’s (AFCA) proposal to publicise the failure of financial firms to comply with AFCA determinations. “It’s something that we think is important.
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1 week ago | 
smsmagazine.com.au | Penny Pryor |Jason Spits
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has cancelled the licence of an entity linked to the Shield Master Fund and flagged as using telemarketers to encourage people to shift their superannuation into SMSFs to invest in high-risk assets. The corporate regulator stated it had permanently cancelled the Australian financial services licence of Financial Services Group Australia (FSGA) on 7 June, while its responsible manager, Graham Holmes, has been permanently banned.
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2 weeks ago | 
smsmagazine.com.au | Penny Pryor |Jason Spits
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has issued warning notices to 18 social media ‘finfluencers’ suspected of unlawfully promoting high-risk financial products and providing unlicensed financial advice to consumers. The move comes as part of a joint global initiative to address the potentially harmful impact these social media sources can have on investors.
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2 weeks ago | 
smsmagazine.com.au | Penny Pryor |Jason Spits
SMSF advisers need to ensure there is nothing technical getting in the way of a client closing their fund, but where any obstacles are still in place they may need to get creative in how they deal with certain problems, according to an SMSF expert. “The big one, the showstopper, is when you’ve got no trustee.
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2 weeks ago | 
smsmagazine.com.au | Penny Pryor |Jason Spits
New data released by the Financial Services Council (FSC) shows the Labor government’s proposed Division 296 tax has the potential to impact more than half a million current Australian workers by the time they retire. For those currently under 30, the tax policy with an unindexed threshold of $3 million could have a financial impact in excess of $200,000, the FSC calculations found.
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3 weeks ago | 
smsmagazine.com.au | Penny Pryor |Jason Spits
Schroders Australia has launched an active exchange-traded fund (ETF) targeting outperformance of the MSCI World ex Australia ex Tobacco Index after fees, while limiting risk relative to the index. The Schroder Global Core Fund – Active ETF is the fifth of its kind, with the manager noting it was released to provide investors access to its long-standing global enhanced index strategy and team. “The investment landscape is ever changing and active ETFs have been a part of that.
